Podnutz Daily #214 - Phase One - Continued

Steve is joined by Door to Door Geek (D2D) who continues in his discussion of his commonly used tools and utilities

Running time: 1:09:47
Added: 27 Jan 2009

Links Discussed:

Clean-up utilities (continued from his last vist):

• JavaRa removes old and redundant versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
• Windows installer Cleanup Utility
• Steven Goulds cleanup! deletes temporary files from your system.
• CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool
• System Restore as a cleanup tool

Security Fixes:

• Dial-a-fix is an advanced utility for 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows written by DjLizard in Borland Delphi 7 that repairs various Windows problems
• combofix scans your computer for known malware
• WinSock XP Fix can often cure the problem of lost connections after the removal of Adware
• Windows Update and MRT(malicious software remove tool)
• SmitFraudFix
• Rougefix is a advanced Virus Remover
• Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) for checking for outdated programs
• Secunia Online Software Inspector (OSI) is the online scanning version

Utilities that are included in the sysinternals Suite

:

• Handle is a utility that displays information about open handles for any process in the system
• PsKill is a kill utility that can also kill processes on remote systems
• PsList shows info on processes
• PsSuspend lets you suspend processes on the local or a remote system
• PendMoves allows tagging of a file to be removed on the next boot
• RegDelNull allows you to delete Registry keys that contain embedded-null characters and that are otherwise undeleteable using standard Registry-editing tools

AV scans:

• Kaspersky AVP Tool is a portable scanner updated ever 4 hours
• Nod32 online scanner
• Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool
• Trojan Remover aids in the removal of Malware - Trojan Horses, Worms, Adware, Spyware

Malware Scans:

• SpyBot Search and Destroy D2D installs it, uses it, then uninstalls
• MalwareBytes
• SuperAnitSpyware
• A-squared

RootKit Scanners:

• GMER detects and removes rootkits
• RootkitRevealer By Bryce Cogswell and Mark Russinovich is an advanced rootkit detection utility (also part of the sysinternals Suite)
• D2D prefers other scanners over rootkit scanners

Other topics and links discussed:

• Running diagnostics remotely from a Windows VM
• D2D says HijackThis carefully (Two websites to use with HijackThis for interpreting results: hijackthis.de and hjt.networktechs.com)
• McAfee Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses
• Who's Locking? is a a devpt/system management tool to find which process is locking a DLL
• Sandboxie now running on 64 bits
• D2D has yet to try Windows Live OneCare safety scanner, but will check it out
• AIDA16 Analyzes your computer and displays thorough information on its hardware. (also part of the Ultimate Boot CD)
• Steve's Laptop Repair Videos can save you time and money

Voicemailes/Emails:

• Compac sr5123wm with Vista Home Premium getting BSOD on boot,tested with memtest, samsung harddrive diagnostic, attempted system recovery from the harddrive and DVD, but only got so far before blue screening, ran fine on Linux boot CD's. Steve says try a different harddrive, D2D says try pulling the drive and running MHDD on a different computer
• John asks about driverpacks.net as a source of drivers for unknown drivers
• One writer likes gotprint.com a source of business cards
• Another writer has a problem with Joost and Steve's RSS feeds
• Aaron B. writes about convincing customers to upgrade their RAM
• Jeff asks about the SIW utility and the technician version
• Techster MD Norton Internet security works well with attached drives, malwarebytes can be used simultaneously.
• Brickwall had problems with internet rendering that was traced down to having "high contrast" in accessability turned on.

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A page of commonly used links given on Podnutz can be found here
Music provided by Evan King
Notes by Mike Evans at datamike.net